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Social Media Marketing for Business

Dennis Yu

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September 26, 2013

Competitive spying on Facebook– as deep as it goes

September 26, 2013 | By | 4 Comments">4 Comments

Facebook is better than LinkedIn in many ways to make connections.

You don’t have to pay for those pesky inMails or get an introduction forwarded– not that I’ve ever done this.

2013-09-24 16_39_46-(19) Nathan Latka's friends who work at Rackspace Hosting

Before you couldn’t easily tell who was a fan of both Heyo and BlitzMetrics:

2013-09-24 15_45_27-People who like Heyo and BlitzMetrics

 

But now you can even show which of these fans are also from New York:

2013-09-24 15_53_10-People who like Heyo and BlitzMetrics and live in New York, New York
Or who are 38 years old and like Heyo:
2013-09-24 15_54_11-People who are 38 years old and like Heyo

What kind of music are they listening to?

2013-09-24 15_57_09-Musicians liked by people who like Heyo

But you don’t need to be an admin to pull this data.

Here’s Constant Contact:

2013-09-24 16_00_08-People who are 38 years old and like Constant Contact

What do gay men who work at Yahoo! like?

2013-09-24 16_02_35-Interests liked by men Yahoo employ who are interested in men

You might use it to better understand your audience:

2013-09-24 16_04_06-Athletes liked by people who like small businesses

Or maybe spy on a competitor:

2013-09-24 16_06_28-Interests liked by people who like ShortStack

And magnify a bit deeper:

2013-09-24 16_12_11-Interests liked by married people who like ShortStack

And deeper:

2013-09-24 16_12_55-Interests liked by married people who like ShortStack and live in San Francisco,

Keep chaining these together.You could take these interests and pump them right back into Facebook ads.

We believe the look-alike audience tool in Facebook basically does this for you already.

But if you narrow it too far, sometimes you don’t get back much:

2013-09-24 16_15_58-Favorite interests of mothers of my friends who like Beer and Drunk driving

I was hoping to find fans of MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) who also like Budweiser.

Just be careful that you don’t target too broadly, since your highest converting traffic will be your own lists.Nothing says you can’t use custom audiences in tandem with interest targeting, like here.

Go give it a shot and reply back here with what you find!

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Meet 

Dennis Yu is the Chief Technology Officer of BlitzMetrics, a digital marketing company which partners with schools to train young adults.

Dennis’s program centers around mentorship, helping students grow their expertise to manage social campaigns for enterprise clients like the Golden State Warriors, Nike, and Rosetta Stone.

He’s an internationally recognized lecturer in Facebook Marketing and has spoken in 17 countries, spanning 5 continents, including keynotes at L2E, Gultaggen, and Marketo Summit.

Dennis has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, LA Times, National Public Radio, TechCrunch, Fox News, CBS Evening News and is co-author of Facebook Nation – a textbook taught in over 700 colleges and universities.

He’s a regular contributor for Adweek’s SocialTimes column and has published in Social Media Examiner, Social Media Club, Tweak Your Biz, B2C, Social Fresh, and Heyo.

He held leadership positions at Yahoo! and American Airlines and studied Finance and Economics at Southern Methodist University as well as London School of Economics. He ran collegiate cross-country at SMU and has competed in over 20 marathons including a 70 mile ultramarathon.

Besides being a Facebook data and ad geek, you can find him eating chicken wings or playing Ultimate Frisbee in a city near you.

You can contact him at dennis@blitzmetrics.com, his blog, or on Facebook.